Women’s Six Nations: Wales need to look ‘deeper’ after sobering Ireland defeat

Naturally in a results-based business, questions are going to be asked about the players and the coaching staff after not only six straight defeats, but the way in which Wales have appeared to take a backward step in their professional journey.

Cunningham is contracted up until the 2025 Rugby World Cup and remains committed to the cause.

“I think I’m the right person to lead this team, obviously there will be other people who can make those decisions, but in the cold light of day I think we have to be honest with each other,” he said.

“We’re probably not comparing apples with apples with different countries at the moment.”

Cunningham said the problem runs a lot deeper and Wales are in desperate need of their own domestic league.

“I think we’ve reached a point now where there is so much good talent coming through in Wales and we’ve got nowhere for them to play, and that is something that we’ve got to seriously look at.

“Playing at under-20s level is brilliant, but then where do they play after that?

“The Celtic Challenge is only a short window and for us to get into that top five in the world we have got to have a domestic competition that provides high-quality rugby for our players.”

All but a few of Wales’ squad ply their trade in England’s Premiership Women’s Rugby (PWR).

Cunningham has made no secret of not being shy in knocking on the door of the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) bosses and he said the domestic league is something “I’ve already brought up”.

“It’s a long-term thing, it’s not going to happen overnight. There are players like Sian Jones, Gwennan Hopkins, Molly Reardon, where are they going to play?

“A big shift needs to happen for us to have the quality players playing regularly, as well as players that are performing well in the PWR, suddenly everything rises.”

In the meantime, Wales will need to salvage what they can from this campaign, firstly by claiming a big scalp against the French, who are on course to once again challenge England for the title.

It would then set up a finale against Italy, which this year will be played at the Principality Stadium.

In what Welsh rugby are hoping will be a record crowd, let us hope Wales are playing for more than the wooden spoon. We already have one of those thanks.